TALLAHASSEE — Fort Pierce attorney and City Commissioner Reginald "Reggie" Bernard Sessions faces a 20-day suspension following a Jan. 9 Florida Supreme Court order over issues he encountered representing a client in a parental rights case, according to an announcement from The Florida Bar.
Sessions' suspension was effective Feb. 4, and he will be placed on nine months of probation after he completes his suspension, according to the high court's two-page order. Sessions also was ordered to pay $2,585.11 in costs.
Allegations against Sessions stem from a case in which he was a court-appointed attorney, according to the state bar's Jan. 29 announcement and the consent judgment filed with the court. The consent judgment provides few details about the case but does include Sessions' conditional guilty plea.
Fort Pierce City Commissioner Reginald "Reggie" Bernard Sessions
"He failed to provide diligent representation to a client, failed to adequately communicate in a termination of parental rights case, and delayed the subsequent appeal in his failure to ensure his client had appellate representation," the state bar said in its announcement.
In Florida, court orders are not final until the time to file a rehearing motion expires. Filing such a motion would not alter the effective date of the Sessions' suspension.
Sessions was admitted to the bar in Florida on Nov. 10, 1996, according to his profile at the state bar website.
He was elected in 2016 to his fifth four-year term on Fort Pierce City Commission.
In prior disciplines, Sessions has been publicly reprimanded twice, once in 2011 and again in 2015, and he was admonished in 2006, according to the consent judgment. His most recent reprimand was issued after his failure to understand felony-sentencing guidelines resulted in an agreement for an illegally long prison sentence for a client, according to a consent judgment filed with the court at the time.